Latest Neocron News and Information

The balance discussions are going ahead at full steam. Two new topics in the last two weeks have been posted, they are on Drone Combat and Meele Combat.

The big new discussion posted today is the proposed changes to the NPC's, where NPC's will now be getting Armour and Resists. The player will have to destroy their armour before the NPC takes any damage. The discussion on the NPC armour is here, but for those who want to read what SnowCrash posted, click on Read me.

The balance discussions are going ahead at full steam. Two new topics in the last two weeks have been posted, they are on Drone Combat and Meele Combat.

The big new discussion post today is the proposed changes to the NPC's, where NPC's will now be getting Armour and Resists. The player will have to destroy their armour before the NPC takes any damage. The discussion on the NPC armour is here so take part and add your views.

Here is what SnowCrash posted.

Neocron Evol 2.2 - Overview: "NPC System"

In light of the re-balancing, we have completely reworked the NPC system to adjust it to the new environment. Health values, armor, NPC weapons and damage types have been thoroughly analyzed and adjusted.

NPC GroupsAll NPCs are classified into groups, depending on their type. Their group, as well as their skill rank, determines health, damage and armor of a NPC. Of course there can be exceptions within a NPC group to do a certain NPC type justice.

As can be seen in the list below, biomechanical creatures represent the toughest NPCs, while plants are the chain’s weakest link.

NPC SkillsThe NPC skill rank is used to scale damage, armor and health. NPCs have their resistances built into their armor values, as opposed to player characters, where resistances are determined by the amount of skill points they spent in them. This is due to the fact that, unlike player characters, NPCs do not have any main- and subskills, but only a general skill rank, which scales all other attributes.

DamageThe maximal damage output of a humanoid NPC is approximately at the level of an APU monk, and is in the middle of the different monster groups. For example, mutated humanoids are considered more powerful than mutated animals, and therefore deal more damage.

In addition, the NPC system has been reworked in many ways to allow easy adjustments. This includes all types of damage generation, which have been reworked and adjusted to meet this standard.

Armor The scaling of an NPC’s armor value largely depends on its group and skill rank. As mentioned above, within a group, certain NPCs may have special values. As a general rule, a NPC is fairly well protected against its own damage type. Certain exceptions, like end bosses, may be 100% resistant to a certain damage type. This allows the creation of NPCs that, for example, can only be harmed by one specific damage type, but also NPCs like Copbots, which are immune to all damage types.

An example: Crabs and RatsCrabs have a better resistance against piercing attacks, because of their hard shell, while rats are only protected by hide and skin.

In addition, NPC armor will be damaged during combat, just like player armor. This means that against some highly armored NPCs, players will first have to "burn down" their armor before the NPC takes real damage.

HealthAgain, NPC maximal health is determined by its group and its skill rank. As the NPCs have been improved through the new armor concept, the current cap of the maximal health will remain intact.